


Shamans are generally trouble

by Longcat



Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6740533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longcat/pseuds/Longcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean check out a job only to have the omens they were chasing abruptly end. What they find when they decide to still check it out is more unusual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shamans are generally trouble

There were no signs of omens since they got into the state. Things just suddenly quieted down, and that was just as bad in their minds. “Come on Sammy! Hurry it up.” he called impatiently from inside the black car. How long did it take to use the can and pay the bill? His giant of a brother quickly bounded across the parking lot. Pulling open the door he sat in the passenger seat. “So. Get this, the lady in there claimed that there's this guy that just moved in on the edge of town that has been acting strange for a few days.”  
“And that's important how?” he glared at the taller man, people going mildly strange wasn't something they usually bothered with.  
“Last person that saw him claimed he had some kind of small bear.” even Sam knew it was a stretch, but this was weird enough that he didn't think was normal.  
“Seriously? A bear? Sammy when did we start caring about local wildlife?” squinting his eyes in exasperated disbelief he was already done with this case as far as he was concerned.  
“Come on Dean, it's the best we've gotten. This place has been dead of signs since we got here, and this guy seemed to go loony around the same time. I really think there's something here.” Sam didn't want to let this one go, something in the back of his head said that this was their kind of deal.  
“Alright, let's go check on Mutual of Omaha.” he gave in knowing that if it was something Sam really wanted to go after there was no stopping him.

~~~

The road stretched through dark scraggly trees, leading them up to a small hunting cottage. No lights on inside the building but a small plume of smoke trailed up out of the chimney. “Well someone is home.” They had spent a better part of the day asking around town about this guy. It seemed that he had moved in to sort out the affairs of a dead family member, around the same time strange things started happening like the mutilations. Then he became secretive and reclusive and the strange things stopped. A few people had commented on strange noises and sights coming from this area, but no one had seen him in more than a few days. More than one person reported seeing a bear like creature in the region, but no one had a clear description of it. It seemed a little strange that the sightings of this bear creature coincided with the retreat of this guy and the end of a string of cattle mutilations.  
“Should we just go up and knock?” “And say what, hey heard you might have died and we have some questions about a bear?” “Let's just go with the usual thing about mutilations.” Sam responded with one of his bitch faces, he could tell his brother was just being pissy to annoy him. “Bitch” came the quiet response. “Jerk” they knocked on the door.  
“Shit.” Sounds from inside indicated someone tripping over things making their way across the room. “oh crap.” something was knocked over inside. “Uhhh….” The door opened a hair. Peeking through the crack they could see a tired face topped with a sandy mohawk in the shadows. “Can I help you guys?”  
The brothers shared a look before one of them took lead, “Yes, my name is Agent Young, this is my partner Agent Slade. We're with Fish and Wildlife following up on the reports of attacks on local cattle.”  
“Oh, uhhh, well there's no cattle here. Nope, sorry, can't help.” The figure beyond the door nervously tried to dismiss the agents on his doorstep. Shuffling could be heard faintly inside. “Ahhhoouchh!!!” He cried out in pain and surprise, he snapped in an angry whisper at something hidden inside. “You little fucker, the hell was that for? … fine, but it's on you if things go wrong.” The door shut briefly and the movement of chains and latches could be heard before the door opened up again. The brothers had been quiet during the exchange, giving each other incredulous looks. Dean made the universal sign for loony and Sam quickly looked down to hide his grin.  
“Sorry about that.” a young man leaned into the door frame, carefully watching the duo, door mostly shut behind him. He rolled his eyes, running fingers through his hair. “Will this be long agents?” his eyes flitted nervously back inside the house. The two agents were more intimidating from this side of the door, both much taller and broader than the defensive young man.  
Dean stared steely at the smaller man, “That all depends on you.” his attention flicked down to a fresh bite mark on his hand. “What do you know about the local bear sightings? We're to believe that there was one seen in the area of your property, Mr…?”  
“Regos, Lore Regos. And it's not possible. There hasn't been a bear seen in this county in almost 30 years. It's more likely a pack of feral dogs. People just dump animals out here when they don't want to take care of them any more. Sick bastards.” He scowled, eyes scrunching up in anger behind square framed glasses.“Now if you're done here. I really have things that need to be done.”  
“Just one more question,” Sam piped up, “are these sorts of cattle attacks common to the area?”  
“Actually, no. We don't have large predators, just the feral packs of dogs, and those are relatively new.” His hand nervously swept through his hair again, “Seemed like they started up not too long after my uncle's death, he was a damn good shot.”  
“And they just died down again recently?”  
“Yup, I think if y'all just get the dog catchers out here they'll stop completely.” he warily eyed them as if to challenge. They could tell they went getting any more information from him this way.  
“Thank you, I'll put that into our report and pass along your concerns to the local authorities. Have a good day.” Sam and Dean both stepped back at the same time taking their leave. The door closed behind them.  
“He's not telling us everything.” Sam said as they walked back down the path.  
“No shit, what gave you that idea? He had a fresh bite mark on his hand, and I mean like he was bit just before or while we were there.” Dean rolled his eyes, he had seen the blood dripping down the man's fingers from the bite, it was really recent.  
“Not to mention I caught a glimpse of some strange things inside the house, like bones and bundles of dried plants hanging from the ceiling. The same kind of plants that are here in the yard.” Dean looked around then as they made their way back to the impala. “These are all plants used in spells and witchcraft. You don't think this guy is playing with fire?” he arched his eyebrow in question, he knew his brother liked to assume the best of people.  
“I think we need to learn more about the area and his uncle.”

~~~

“Cas, get your feathery ass down here.” Dean had abandoned his research and was calling for the third member of their team. They had already learned enough about the situation that he felt warranted divine intervention. Sam was hunched over his laptop at the small table pouring over the information. Notes scattered around him on several different topics. “We need your help here, I think there's a kid here in way over his head. Cas?” his prayers went unanswered.  
“Get this, Anthony Regos, that kid's uncle was kind of like this town's Bobby. A drunk recluse that folks went to with unusual problems. No serious complaints about him, in fact just about everything I'm finding is positive. There's a couple old articles here,” he pulled out a photocopy of a newspaper, “that have the same person in the background of the photos. I'm thinking that's Anthony. All these articles are about strange incidences. Like, look at this one.” He got up walking over to Dean to show him the specific article. His older brother took the paper and looked it over, quickly skimming the article and examining the picture.  
“ ‘dried up well returns to life, local farm saved’ are those runes carved into the well?” He tapped a finger to the picture in question, “I think we need to talk to the kid again and probably get him away from the house. You see if you can get him to talk more, I'm gonna check out the house.”

~~~

They split up, Sam heading into town hoping to run into the kid at the grocery store since that seemed to be a regular stop for him. Their surveillance paid off when he spotted the target going around the back side of the grocery store. He put his coffee down along with some cash for the bill before getting up and leaving the cafe to follow the younger man. Sam caught up with him just as he was taking butcher scraps from an employee out the back bay to a large van, faint outlines of a drawing covered the windowless side of the van. It looked like a bear with wings riding out of swirling mist, Sam arched his brow at the unique image, thinking how the vehicle stood out with the mural.  
“Hey, Lore is it?” He smiled and waved in attempts to not seem threatening. “Can I help you with any of that?”  
He startled and nearly dropped the bag of scraps and the bag of mixed sweets he was juggling as he tried opening the back door of his van, “Shit man. You startled me.” Looking between the man he knew as a Fish and Game officer and the bag of discarded meat and candies, his shoulders dropped, letting the bag touch the ground. He looked panicked for a brief moment, “This isn't what it looks like. I'm not going to use any of this for bait traps, I swear.”  
It took Sam a moment to connect the dots, “Oh! Nah man it's cool. I can tell that you're not the kind of guy to poison bait. You'd rather see the people responsible for abandoning the animals suffer than the animals themselves.” he smiled as he moved closer reaching to help grab the bag. Lore let the much taller man take the bag as he fumbled with his keys and opened the van doors. The back doors opened to a work in progress, wood paneling and insulation were half installed a few empty candy wrappers were scattered on the floor. Sam could make out a few protecting symbols etched into and drawn on the metal siding. “... Demons, vengeful spirits, prying eyes?” he whispered to himself as he tried to identify what each symbol covered, forgetting for a moment the other man. “He was right, you're not from Fish and Game, are you?” Sam spun around to come face to, well air, the other man stood almost eight inches shorter than him, but the look on the other's faces was a combination of fear, anger, and desperation. And he had a hex bag in his hand. Sam pulled out the demon blade suddenly fearful for himself, he wasn't prepared to face down a witch. “He said you two weren't going to be an issue if I just went along with everything. He told me we had more time.” The anger wasn't directed at him, and Sam could tell he was scared.  
“Who told you? I can help you, we can help. You don't have to do this,” he was busy trying to talk the other man down, the guy must have only recently gotten involved in witchcraft and they might be able to save him.  
“He said that you did the same things we did, took care of the monsters. Made sure people were safe, just like my uncle did. I didn't want this!”  
“We do! That's what we do, we're hunters. Now I'm going to put the knife away slowly. Can you do that too, put the bag away and we can talk. I want to help you. But I need you to tell me what exactly is going on.” Sam was relieved to hear that this kid was just scared and following directions to be helpful. They had met friendly creatures before, and had heard of white witches, maybe this was one. But he still needed to know more about who he was getting help from. Knife put away, he watched as the other put away the magical item.  
“I'm sorry, this is all new and I've never met a hunter before. I thought you'd kill me when you saw the signs. I don't know if things would have gone better or worse if my partner was with me on this run.” he sighed sitting on the bumper of the vehicle, “Probably worse, I'm glad I convinced him to stay at the house. Say where's your partner?”  
“Uhm, at the house?” Sam answered sheepishly. “What exactly is your partner, another witch like you?”  
“Shit, no, we've got to get going.” He jumped up, and quickly made his way to the driver's door. “Get in with me and I'll try to explain on the way.” Sam slammed the back doors and made his way to shotgun now worried for his brother. “I'm not a witch, at least I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'm a shaman, and my ‘partner’ is my spirit guide. Who I hope for your sake hasn't found your partner yet.” they were traveling at high speeds to get to the small house on the edge of town.  
“A spirit guide? So like an animal ghost?”  
“Not quite, these are strong spirits almost demi-god-like. My uncle had a heron guide,”  
“And you have a bear.” Sam interrupted feeling like he pieced it together.  
“If only I was that lucky. No, I got a winged-bear.”

~~~

Dean parked the impala down the road from the house, opened the hood of the car and started walking towards the house. It was a trick he had learned to stay out of serious trouble, make it look like car issues and some shopping could be ignored. The place was quiet and there wasn't any signs of the kid being around. “I hope Sammy found him.” He whispered as he walked up the front path. Before getting to the front porch and front door he moved off the path and diverted to the back yard. Taking note of all the plants growing, so far everyone of them he could think of a magical use for them. Several of the garden stones had runes carved into them. Dean made sure to be extra careful moving through the area some of the runes looked old and he didn't know if they were traps or what. The backyard was open and actually had grass instead of a tangled mess of a garden like he was expecting, there was even a small pond on one end. It really looked like a stereotypical cottage yard,  
except for the strange scratch marks in the dirt. Something with claws, long claws had made them, Dean thought they looked familiar. Trying to quickly go through as many previous hunts in his head to see if he could remember where he had seen similar marks. The marks led to the back door, testing the doorknob it opened easily. Alarms were going off in his head as Dean cautiously made his way into the house, something was very off about this. The kitchen was cluttered but no strange ingredients could be seen. Even the fridge was devoid of supernatural foodstuffs, it was actually pretty empty, lunch meats, pasta, and beer were all that he could see. Opening the freezer and frozen bags of meat fell out and on the floor, clattering loudly. Dean had his gun out and winced at sound and mess, prepared for another person to investigate the noises. When nothing happened he started to pick up the bags and return them; ground meat, soup bones, livers, hearts? This was now some spooky shit going on here, who kept a full freezer but an empty fridge? Things put away he cautiously made his way into the next room. It looked like it had been a living room; there were boxes half filled with papers and magazines, stacks of books lined the side wall. Bundles of herbs hung from the ceiling, as did a few animal jaw bones and small animal leg bones. It was looking more and more like a witch's house, the occasional crumpled chip bag or candy wrappers starting to look out of place. At the base of the staircase Dean spotted more of the same scratches in the wood, they looked more like from talons than from claws. “I think beheading kills a harpy,” he muttered to himself as he slowly made his way up the steps, replacing his gun for the machete he carried with him. At the top of the stairs he heard snoring, spinning the blade in his hand he moved closer to the source.  
The state of the door gave away the fact of a monster behind it, talon marks scratched the floor under the door and the door itself had multiple smaller scratch marks. The door squeaked open and a flurry of movement had a pair of pitch black eyes staring back at Dean.  
“Son of a bitch!” He cried out falling backwards. His back hit the wall and was able to get a full look of the monster. That's not a harpy. He swung the blade at the creature as he backed away from it. It wasn't that big, more than half his own height but it wasn't like anything he had seen before. Unless it's a bear-harpy, Sammy’ll have a field day doing research on this. His thoughts were interrupted as a heavy paw swiped at him as the creature snarled. Dodging, he moved further back down the small hallway, he wanted to stay out of range of the teeth and claws of the half-bear part of the creature. He figured the low ceilings would help to keep him safe from the sharp talons as the large set of wings couldn't open in the narrow hall. It let out a series of whistles and clicks as it got closer to him, forcing him closer to the stairs.  
The front door burst open. “Dean!” “BearHawk!” Sam and Lore called out in unison.  
“Thank God.” Dean breathed in a sigh of relief. The creature wasn't advancing on him anymore but was just chattering out a stream of whistles and growls.  
“I know! You were the one who said they were good. No I didn't expect them to try to attack us. Yes, I mean no, I'm fine! He didn't hurt me!” Lore loudly told the creature. It pushed past Dean who looked ready to resume their fight if necessary, and jumped down the stairs, wings slightly open to slow his descent. Paws softly checked the younger man, as his fingers moved through the feathers of its wings. “Sam, Dean, this is BearHawk, my spirit guide.” He grinned nervously over the creature.

~~~

“My uncle kept this town safe mostly from werewolves and skinwalkers, while quietly helping the town with little spells. He never did anything to get the attention of real hunters like you guys.” The four of them were sitting in the living room with cold beers and a large box of pizza. “I'm not that lucky, as soon as he died and passed the mantle to me I attract demons and the freaking Winchesters.” Growls and clicks came from the monster to his right, as it munched on a snickers bar. “Yeah you did, but you're half the problem! One of the more powerful spirit guides shows on earth, and you're a freakin’ beacon to the weird.” His head dropped into his hands, the brothers were able to see all the recent scarring up and down his arms from bites and scratches. “Why me?” He moaned softly.  
“Hey, I'm not even going to pretend to understand what's going on here. But what the hell kind of spirit guide is a bear-harpy?” Sam might have been more accepting of this ‘good shaman’ but he couldn't ignore the monster sitting across from him sharing a beer with the rest of them. It didn't even look human, it looked like a straight up Dr. Moreau creation. Top half bear, lower half bird, large wings, nothing about it made sense.  
“It seems most spirit guides are basic animals, expressing the epitome of that animal’s powers.” Sam was flipping through a large tome that Bobby would have loved to own, something he was even a bit envious of. “Some spirit guides are lesser gods, like demi-god level. And it looks like a winged-bear, or BearHawk, is one of those.”  
“So, short-stack shaman here got a god-guide, fantastic. At least it's not some demonic creature, those beady-black eyes could have fooled me.” Dean glared at it, it stared back unblinking and smiling, he shivered.  
“Raaa, kikikiii.”  
“He said he killed them. The demons he means, the ones who got the cows. He's not very clear when he talks, tends to assume everyone knows what he's talking about and uhh, can understand him.” Lore explained from behind his fingers, still hiding his face in resignation. Having to translate for his guide was something we would have been OK with if it spoke telepathically like his uncle's heron did, but his chattered away and only he could understand. Having Sam reading some of the same passages that he had trouble with was nice.  
“‘Higher spirit guides may have some sway over lesser spirits and creatures.’ huh, so depending on how powerful of a spirit guide he is could attribute to actually being able to harm and even kill demons.” Sam put the book down, grabbing another slice of pizza, “I think you two should be fine, just uh, avoid other hunters for now.”

~~~

They didn't stay much longer. Sam made copies of a few of the books for their collections. Dean helped finish outfitting the camper van, it had enough room for hidden compartments for both hunter gear and magic ritual components. And Lore learned the basics of decapitation and staking from the brothers. BearHawk gleefully took part in these lessons as well, thoroughly enjoying wielding the same machete he had waved at him earlier that week. It was a nice break from the mess they had been facing, and they felt like they had made a useful contact. It wasn't often that they came across anyone willing to be friendly with them for more than a day.  
“Hey kid, take it easy.” Dean said as he patted the side of the van.  
“You've got our numbers should you come across something you need help with.” Sam gave the young man's shoulder a friendly squeeze. Both of them waved goodbye to the monster before stepping into the impala and driving off.  
“Well that was weird, even by our standards. But I liked them,” Dean said as they drove down the back roads. “I still wonder what kind of guide a bear-harpy is though.”  
“Winged-bear,” he corrected, “the books didn't say much on it, but wings generally mean freedom and bears symbolize strength and sloth…” he trailed off mid sentence. “Who do we know that's really powerful but lazy, enjoys sweets, and likes to do what they want?”  
“Son of a bitch! Don't tell me it's a trickster spirit.” he bemoaned, “That poor kid is in way over his head.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into Spn fanfiction, but Lore and BearHawk are old characters of mine that change slightly depending on what AU or fandom I insert them into.  
> http://narrettwist.tumblr.com/post/141901390015/bearhawk-and-lore-a-la-supernaturalau-these-are


End file.
